Traders’ Vaccine-Stock Giddiness Fades Amid Doubts on Road Ahead
- Lack of clarity about commercial success puts damper on stocks
- Unanswered questions lead to slow leak in biotech bubble
The initial blast of enthusiasm for stocks linked to Covid-19 vaccines triggered by key milestones in their development is quickly fading as investors assess the challenges they still face in becoming commercially successful.
Wall Street analysts can’t quite gauge when or how sales will peak because it’s unknown how long vaccines will be effective, whether they’ll be needed more than once or even if those who have been vaccinated will continue to spread the virus. Forecasts on when the U.S. might reach herd immunity, potentially obliviating the need for inoculations, also run the gamut, though Anthony Fauci, the nation’s top U.S. infectious disease doctor, says things could be “approaching normal” by late next year. That’s prompted a retreat among many of the retail investors who had piled in to biotech stocks.